My God, I had forgotten how gorgeous Jeremy Irons was as a young man. Of course now that I think about it, I knew several long haired, earnest, moustachioed young men back then, Jeremy reminded me of all of them throughout the movie, making it hard to pay attention to the film. Not that the film was all that interesting. Meryl Streep is "oh so lovely and forlorn" in her roll as Sarah and just plain good looking in her roll as Ann the 20th century movie star. Streep and Irons did well with the material, but there wasn't much given them really and Irons does look a bit silly plodding around the countryside in his fashionable Victorian suits. Still the possibilities of their love kept me hoping.
The single most annoying factor was Lynsey Baxter as Ernestina, the fiancee of Jeremy Irons' Charles Smithson. She looked and acted like she had just walked over from the filming of a Jane Austen novel, totally out of place, in this dark piece. That said most of the other characters seemed disjointed or knew more of what was going on than we are shown. The doctor, for instance, seems to know more of the depth of Smithson's feelings than even Smithson. That would be OK if we were given some clues as well, but we are not.
In the end I just kept watching for the nostalgia of the look the Jeremy Irons wears so well and that isn't such a bad thing, is it?
The single most annoying factor was Lynsey Baxter as Ernestina, the fiancee of Jeremy Irons' Charles Smithson. She looked and acted like she had just walked over from the filming of a Jane Austen novel, totally out of place, in this dark piece. That said most of the other characters seemed disjointed or knew more of what was going on than we are shown. The doctor, for instance, seems to know more of the depth of Smithson's feelings than even Smithson. That would be OK if we were given some clues as well, but we are not.
In the end I just kept watching for the nostalgia of the look the Jeremy Irons wears so well and that isn't such a bad thing, is it?